Unicorn app developer Lightricks has acquired advertising platform Popular Pays

Earlier this month, Lightricks announced the acquisition of Popular Pays to accelerate the high-growth Jerusalem startup’s strategy to become a one-stop platform for creators. Popular Pays, which is based in Chicago, is an agile advertising platform built to connect creators with brands looking for people to partner with on their campaigns.

In an interview with Axios, Lightricks’s leadership shared how the acquisition fits into their wider vision. “For modern creators, their needs only start with content creation tools,” said Lightricks co-founder and CEO Zeev Farbman. “We want to be completely aligned with creators and offer them a platform that helps them succeed every step of the way.”

The creator economy has expanded rapidly in recent years, partly spurred by the pandemic encouraging more people to explore alternative careers. Both Lightricks and Popular Pays experienced banner years in 2021, with their highest revenues to date.

Since Lightricks was founded in 2013, its success on the supply side of content has been remarkable. Lightricks apps have been installed some 600 million times, according to a company spokesperson. Across the ecosystem, there are 24 million monthly users who export 71 million items combined per month. For most of the company’s life, the focus has been on the acclaimed photo and video editing tools such as Facetune, Facetune 2, Videoleap, Motionleap  and Filtertune.

It was expected that Lightricks would complete acquisitions in 2022 after a bumper Series D round in November 2021, where it raised $130 million. This valued the company at $1.8 billion with $335 million in total funding from respected firms such as Insight Partners and Hanaco Venture Capital. The intent stated at the time was to expand beyond the editing tools that they had become acclaimed for.

As part of this strategy, Lightricks launched ltx.bio and The247. The former is a free tool where creators can deploy social bio link microsite destinations for free, simultaneously allowing them to showcase their personalities and various links while also allowing them to monetize using a native “tip jar” powered by Stripe.

The latter is an editorial offering launched in collaboration with the D’Amelio family, mega-influencers who are investors and strategic partners in Lightricks. The247 features exclusive content by D’Amelios and other content creators who use the Lightricks ecosystem to accelerate their growth.

Popular Pays is a huge step forward in the post-investment strategy, as it brings a significant player on the demand side of the creator economy into the Lightricks sphere. The platform works by allowing brands and creators to connect with one another when their niche audience interests mesh well together.

To date, Popular Pays has independently facilitated 40,000 creator-brand relationships, and it’s likely this number will rise rapidly following integration into the Lightricks family.

Creators who already use Lightricks products will be empowered by this new way to generate revenue. Popular Pays has many major companies among its clients. Two highlights include Frito-Lay, which collaborated with 25 content creators to create 118 video assets for a TV ad spot, and Kraft Heinz, which commissioned sponsored content from 12 creators to generate over 8 million impressions.

For Popular Pays CEO Corbett Drummey, the acquisition represents a major win, because of the increased resources that will be available to achieve his vision, and because of the natural synergy between the two companies.

“Our products, teams, and strengths are extremely complementary, and the resources and scale that Lightricks brings to the table will enable new and bold strategies that I believe will change our industry,” he said in a statement. “We are excited to get to work on them together.”

All 30 employees of Popular Pays will join the Lightricks team, which is already over 500 people strong. Corbett, who will become the Vice President of Brand Collaboration, added, “Our vision is to lead an agile transformation in advertising, and we believe that creators will power that evolution. Together, we will have the largest opt-in creator community of any competitive offering.”

This kind of tie-up is unprecedented in the creator economy and shows a serious desire by Lightricks to fulfill its ambitions. The platform Lightricks is building could be what the future holds for creators, with tools and monetization options all in one convenient place.